#168
“……!”
Yoon Pa-ran heightened his tension instantly at the strange phenomenon that suddenly entered his vision. There was an unpleasant sensation as if a giant eyeball was watching him.
“Ugh……”
The scene before him was still just the ordinary interior of a gate. Yet he couldn’t shake the sensation that some enormous presence was looking down at him.
“Oh no.”
Wasn’t the trial already in progress? The newly appeared trial didn’t even have a penalty written on it, which somehow felt even more ominous than directly mentioning death.
“This is……”
Gradually, the gaze of something enormous focused on Yoon Pa-ran. Though a gaze shouldn’t have physical sensation, its movement was felt so clearly that it gave him goosebumps.
It was an unpleasant sensation, as if everything inside him was being flipped over and exposed. To resist it, Yoon Pa-ran instinctively tried to draw upon the power of his skill.
However, [Sacred Energy] burst forth first from Dan Joo-hyuk’s body, who was holding him.
“You…!”
Before understanding the intention behind that action, Yoon Pa-ran’s mouth opened. When their eyes met, Dan Joo-hyuk smiled with crinkled eyes.
Then he suddenly pushed Yoon Pa-ran away, despite having held him as if he would never let go.
“Wait…!”
A mark is being inscribed.
Simultaneously, the status window flashed again. The ominous “gaze” turned away from Yoon Pa-ran and now focused on Dan Joo-hyuk.
An extremely sinister black crescent moon appeared above his head.
“Dan Joo-hyuk!”
The startled Yoon Pa-ran immediately reached out his hand, but couldn’t make contact. It was frustrating that his body, already caught in the distorting flow of the gate, wouldn’t move as he wished.
Dan Joo-hyuk, who had been staring intently at Yoon Pa-ran’s face, smiled brightly again. Even as they gradually separated after he let go, he whispered in a voice that remained distinctly audible.
“Don’t forget our promise.”
‘I’ll promise not to do anything reckless.’
“No…!”
The reckless act is what you’re doing right now!
The indignant cry only circled inside him without escaping his lips. Soon his vision flashed white and he could no longer see anything.
Dan Joo-hyuk’s face seemed to float across his retina as if embedded there. It was clear that he had deliberately emitted the skill to take the mark that was meant for Yoon Pa-ran. Despite knowing that Dan Joo-hyuk was strong enough, Yoon Pa-ran felt strangely angry about why he would do something so dangerous.
“Urgh!”
Ejected alone, Yoon Pa-ran was violently tossed about. With his eyes tightly shut, he endured the sensation of someone grabbing his soul and shaking it vigorously.
Then at some point, his body floated up and suddenly plummeted down. It felt like riding a long water slide and then being abruptly spat out onto the ground.
There was a dull pain in his back. Suddenly, a strange air—whether it was the smell of grass or blood—filled his lungs.
“Cough.”
As soon as he felt gravity, Yoon Pa-ran jumped to his feet. Leaves with an alien texture that had been stuck to his cheek fell away, fluttering.
The sky he urgently looked up at was not blue.
“Where is this…?”
It was familiar for the sky color inside a gate to be abnormal. However, Yoon Pa-ran had to anxiously look around with a puzzled expression.
Because this place seemed to be outside a gate.
A large sign reading “Yongsan District Office” lay toppled beside Yoon Pa-ran, along with pieces of glass. The buildings around the district office building had mostly collapsed as if bombed, revealing the rebar inside.
Yoon Pa-ran’s puzzled gaze continued to move along the debris. It was as if a giant had stomped around this area. His eyes trembled finely at the tragic sight of buildings all collapsed and flattened.
There were also alien elements in that landscape. Massive trees that clearly weren’t of Earth had grown in various places.
“What is this……”
Enormous trees that could be called ancient stretched toward the sky, breaking through the concrete debris. Though the major gate couldn’t have appeared long ago, it looked as if they had explosively grown in an instant.
Tree roots embedded in the ground pulsated with squelching sounds. Leaves with a sticky yet glossy texture scattered in all directions with the strong wind.
The otherworldly trees were sparsely distributed before forming a colony at some point. As he slowly turned his head in that direction, something he had never seen before caught Yoon Pa-ran’s attention.
A massive gate was opening its maw from the sky, like the gates of hell.
“……”
It looked as if a hole had been torn in the sky around the gate. From the edges of that hole, dark red sky spread out like cracks.
Tentacle-like things were wriggling and protruding from the gate. These forms, which didn’t exist on Earth, stretched endlessly downward. Dirt, dust, and large boulders also fell occasionally. It was as if everything from the other world inside was being dumped here.
The protruding tentacles gradually transformed, soon becoming trees and changing the color of the land. Watching this merciless procession of invasion, Yoon Pa-ran swallowed dryly.
“Ah.”
Coming to his senses, Yoon Pa-ran urgently searched for his phone. With the outside of the gate so devastated, could the whole of Seoul be like this?
Contrary to his concerns, there was a text from Yoon Seul saying his siblings were being brave and not crying, received just a few minutes ago. Though the signal was unstable, compared to when he had jumped into the gate, only about an hour had passed.
The time that had passed was more than expected, but Yoon Pa-ran felt some relief for now.
“Phew……”
Now he just needed to find what he could do here.
Just as he sighed and relaxed his tension, Yoon Pa-ran suddenly drew his sword and turned around.
Keee—!
Feeling a pull at the back of his head, he swung his sword. A mud-like monster that had suddenly risen from the ground was cut in two.
Due to the monster energy felt from all directions, [Sacred Energy] naturally flowed into his sword.
“Hoo.”
A fairly strong monster was split in half like tofu in one strike. Strangely, his skill seemed to have grown stronger.
It wasn’t entirely a good thing. When he deliberately suppressed the [Sacred Energy] and faced a few monsters, it was much more challenging than usual. Other hunters would probably have an even harder time.
So Dan Joo-hyuk should have filled up on this skill properly.
“……”
Dan Joo-hyuk’s face came to mind again. Yoon Pa-ran unknowingly gritted his teeth. He was determined to thoroughly question why he had done something so dangerous when they met again.
Before departing from the orphanage, they had agreed to meet at the center. Judging by the Yongsan District Office sign he had seen earlier, he had clearly landed right in the center. Wherever Dan Joo-hyuk had landed, he would come to this area.
“H-Hunter, sir.”
Just then, a thread-like sound reached Yoon Pa-ran’s ears. His head turned quickly, recognizing the young voice.
Far away, under a large pile of rocks, a small figure was visible.
As soon as he saw it, Yoon Pa-ran ran without a moment’s hesitation. At the place he rushed to was a child hiding in the crevices of large rocks.
The child looked about Min-woong’s age.
“Are you okay?”
The child, hugging a doll, nodded with a very frightened face. Yoon Pa-ran quickly pulled the child out from between the cracks and looked at the pile of rocks with a serious expression.
Though much of it was broken, it was unmistakably a safe zone statue.
Seeing even the statue there strengthened his earlier speculation. The things inside the gate really had poured out.
“Where are your parents?”
“I don’t know……”
The child murmured, obediently nestling in Yoon Pa-ran’s arms. Tear tracks were clear on the child’s face, which was a mess from stone dust.
There used to be a large family park in this area. That low mountain had now been flattened beyond recognition.
“……”
“Suddenly from the sky, things just came out……”
As Yoon Pa-ran looked at what had been the park with a bleak expression, the child murmured at his neck. At the words that seemed like an accusation, Yoon Pa-ran patted the child’s small back.
“I know. It’s okay now.”
Carrying the rescued child in one arm, Yoon Pa-ran continued moving. Whether fortunate or unfortunate, there were quite a few survivors who had miraculously survived in various places. Thanks to the safe zone statues that had come out of the gate together or the remnants of remaining buildings that helped them hide from monsters’ attention.
Unfortunately, the safe zone statues weren’t functioning properly. Monsters wandered near the statues without any problem.
The survivors he rescued in this hectic manner soon numbered around ten.
“Hunter, what should we do now?”
“If we go a little further, there should be a defense line set up by the Gate Management Office. Let’s head there.”
“Yes, yes!”
Unfortunately, his phone had stopped working, but before that, he had managed to learn about the defense line established by the Gate Management Office. He still couldn’t contact Dan Joo-hyuk though.
After entrusting the child to a survivor, Yoon Pa-ran began clearing a path in earnest. Dan Joo-hyuk was likely to be in this area, and he also needed to search for the suspicious item called an axis.
But the more he observed the area affected by the major gate, the darker Yoon Pa-ran’s face became. Various attributes could be felt, as if different types of gates had erupted together. Among them, what stood out most on his skin was none other than the death energy (死氣) of monsters.
It was the same energy as the suspicious axis items he was looking for. Since they were scattered everywhere, finding a specific item was quite difficult.
Nevertheless, Yoon Pa-ran steadily headed toward where the influence of the major gate was fading. He planned to take the survivors there first and then return to the center.
“There it is.”
“Ah…!”
As expected, near where the red invaded land was ending, temporary headquarters tents set up by the Gate Management Office were visible.
“Oh? Oh? Hunter Yoon Pa-ran?”
Some civil servants and hunters there recognized Yoon Pa-ran and raised their voices. They seemed to have come out urgently to check when people emerged from inside.
After handing over the survivors to them, Yoon Pa-ran conveyed the situation inside. Those who had been in disarray due to the sudden crisis absorbed the information Yoon Pa-ran brought like a well in a drought.
“…Are there no other hunters who came out from inside?”
“No.”
Meanwhile, Yoon Pa-ran quietly observed the atmosphere of the temporary headquarters.
He had hoped that Dan Joo-hyuk might be here when he arrived, but there was no trace of him. Seeing a civil servant with a tearful face continuously trying to contact Dan Joo-hyuk, it seemed he hadn’t even passed through.
Where the hell are you and what are you doing?
Author: Hyacinthus B
Hyacinthus
